Just when you thought Judge of the Week was gone, its not! This week we feature Corina Grant, a level 2 judge from California, America. She started playing Magic with her father when she was very young. Corina says:

“I distinctly remember buying Onslaught packs. We used many of my dad’s old cards for deck building including dual lands. I had absolutely no idea of their value, and neither did he, which is a shame! I had a play set of Tundras. I found one of them recently, but I did not take very good care of it as an 8-year old. I quit playing around Kamigawa, because I really disliked the set. When I came back from college last year, a little after the release of Rise of the Eldrazi, I jumped back into Magic with my friends and really got into judging shortly after.”

Corina says that she got into judging because of her love for rules interactions, more so even than playing the game, andshe has been like that her whole life. She loves to understand how and why things work, and judging seemed a natural progression. When talking about her most memorable judging experience she says:

“My most memorable experience is probably testing for L2 in Kansas City. I barely missed, and I was heartbroken. But my friends were completely there for me, and were actually able to make me feel good about it. The judge community is amazing; I have never had such a supportive group of friends.”

Favourite Magic format?
Constructed. Any Constructed! I just love control. Draw-go control, even. EDH is great, but it seems more like who can find the silliest or coolest interaction and win with it, while Constructed really tests skill. EDH is just too slow.

Favourite Magic storyline character?
Oh.. Yawgmoth? Possibly Rebbec. I absolutely loved the Magic books when I was a kid, and The Thran is one I’ve read probably 10+ times. I was a nerdy little kid.. and the book is very well written. Yawgmoth is obviously evil, but he is pretty interesting.

Favourite Magic Card?
Tooth and Nail. Without question. Time Stretch is a close second. EDH has definitely tainted my opinion of cards.

What do you do outside of judging?
I’m a full time student. In my free time I work at a card shop and play Magic with my friends! My life is pretty over-saturated with Magic. I also play many video games, I’m playing through Disgaea DS right now.

Describe your Magic community.
My Magic community is great. It’s not huge, but we have a pretty solid group of people that show up all the time. It’s very laid back for the most part, but there are definitely some players that take things more seriously and care about competitive play.

If you could play any one game with any one real person – living or dead – what and who would it be?
I’d play Magic with Babe Ruth! Actually I’d play anything with Babe Ruth (except baseball, that would be downright embarrassing). I would love to meet him, I’d be pretty happy to do whatever he wanted for the chance to talk to him for a little while.

Name one planeswalker that you would want to have while stranded on a desert island.
They all seem pretty crazy to me.. I’d probably pick Venser, Shaper Savant. Pre-death, obviously. He seems like an all around nice guy, which isn’t something I can say for most of the planeswalkers. He also seems the least crazy.

Reader Challenge – Two Truths and a Lie
Two of the following are true and one is false! Work it out!

1. I have four grandmothers.
2. I chose my middle name after Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
3. Our 3 cats are named Chachi, Joanie, and Fonzie.

(Highlight the blank space between the brackets to see the answer.)
The false statement is [#2! Corina chose her middle name after Sabrina, the Pokemon Gym Leader!.]